18th – 22nd Dec 2010
With David engrossed in fishing from the local jetty for most of the day it was nice and peaceful at the camp and gave both Nancy and myself the opportunity to relax and take our time preparing everything for our move the next day, Sunday 19th.

Sunday 19th : Awoke to fickle weather again, strong cold winds and rain periods, at least once we were under way the wind was occasionally in our favour and pushed us along nicely, we eventually pulled up mid afternoon at Whyalla and set up for the night behind a high tin fence surrounding the caravan park rubbish tip in an attempt to shelter from the continuing icy blast from the south. I am in awe at the resilience of that little frail dome tent we have been putting up for David to sleep in, at times it flaps, rattles and cracks like an un-sheeted jib in a summer squall, quite expecting at any moment for it to take off like something out of Harry Potter, I wonder how we will manage to clamber over him after having taken refuge in the van during the night will be sleeping on the floor, as we undertake the nightly totter with eyes closed and half asleep to carry that, that seems apparent to all of us as we lengthen in the tooth. But resilient it is and so far has proven to be quite a satisfactory low cost investment.

Monday 20th: Eventually leaving Whyalla, after calling into the Westside Shopping Centre for 3 rolls and a loaf of bread during which time I read a third of a Bryce Courtenay novel, we arrived via Port Augusta for fuel, at the grain farming town of Melrose and set up camp at the local show grounds a nice peaceful location just out of town, 3 adults $20 per night all up power and water, showers and toilet – good value.

Melrose is a picturesque quiet sleepy settlement with traditional quaint old houses and is said to be the oldest town in the Flinders Ranges, I forgot to mention we were travelling back into the southern Flinders Range. Situated at the foot of Mt Remarkable Melrose is a starting point for several popular mountain bike trails and both the Mawson and Heyson hiking trails pass along this way. Melrose was settled by pastoralists in the 1840s but really took off when copper was found nearby in 1846 like a lot of SA towns. Now days grain growing and sheep farming is in a big way throughout the region, grain carry trucks busily thunder along in various directions carting grain to the numerous white painted silos situated throughout the countryside everywhere, once harvested large flocks of sheep are turned out into the stubble fields. With so much grain around there’s an abundance of loud pink and grey galahs and white cockatiels all having a field day and making a big noise about it.
During our two day stay at Melrose we also drove to Wilmington where we visited Alligator Gorge National Park and enjoyed a few hours bush walking.

Wednesday 22nd:
Moving on our journey south took us through small attractive farming towns some very small, just whistle stop hamlets and others such as the town of Laura a lot larger but probably still only a containing a couple of thousand local residents. Laura, south to Gladstone and then deviating east and south east through undulating grain country to Jamestown and Hallett , past hill tops covered with hundreds of power generating wind turbines that to me may reduce green house gases but boy they certain create visual pollution and I am led to believe, noise pollution. A few kilometres on was Burra one of the larger towns in this part of the country, after a brief walk around town a Cornish Pastie and a jumbo flat white the place looked interesting enough to book into the local caravan park for the night. It’s not a very large caravan park but it is only a two minute walk from town centre and adjacent to an attractive tree lined gully and billabong. No one was in attendance at the small reception office when we arrived, a contact phone number on the door went to message bank and an alternative number in a caravan park brochure also went to message bank, so we selected the site we wanted parked and secured the van and leaving a short contact note attached to the reception office door proceeded to follow a historical drive trail around town. Wow what a place take out a dozen or so near modern homes and you had a quaint English town straight out of Cornwall.
From ‘Explore Australia’, Burra region exploded into activity when copper was found by two shepherds in 1845. Settlements were established based on the miners country of origin areas were vcalled Aberdeen for the Scottish, Hampton for the English, Llwchwr for the Welsh and Redruth for the Cornish (the original Cornish Pasties we had in town were delicious, they obviously keep well) . This settlement grew to become the second largest in SA and apparently the rich copper produced over a number of years apparently propped up SA’s financial situation at a time when things weren’t looking so good, a bit like Qld’s situation and the Gympie gold fields.
If you like old places and things Burra is a classic steeped in mining history there is a lot of ruins and old sites to see and visit, there are more quaint miners cottages and old stone houses and buildings than modern ones some look like the are a bit derelict and others are well maintained with typical English like cottage gardens. A very fascinating place.